


Showing Fives and Sixes

by forgetcanon



Series: old world blues and new world hope [2]
Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Arcade is terrible at lying, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 04:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6940198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgetcanon/pseuds/forgetcanon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the night before they visit the Tops. Lautner doesn't know how to play blackjack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Showing Fives and Sixes

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I want to write a lighthearted fic about Veronica teaching the Courier about how to play blackjack.  
> Me, later: okay what the fuck

Veronica had been planning to get a snack and go back to her reading, but the activity on the dining room table drew her eye. She veered away from her course. Arcade, Lautner, a deck of cards, a pile of chips, and drinks- that had to be a recipe for some kind of party. 

"Hey," Arcade said, slowly dealing the cards. "Want in?"

"Blackjack?" Veronica asked.

"Yup."

"So, when do I bet?" Lautner asked.

Veronica eyed Arcade. "You bet before the dealer deals." (Arcade shrugged dealt Veronica in.) "Haven't you ever played blackjack?"

"No," Lautner said. It sounded like she'd said it a few times. "Well. I've played once or twice, friendly-like, but not in a casino and not _recently_."

"We're trying to keep Lautner from embarrassing herself tomorrow," Arcade said. "Which is unfortunate, because there's no way to _not_ embarrass yourself gambling."

The thing at the Tops tomorrow. Going by the way Lautner reached for her glass, she was trying to suppress her nerves more than anything else. Veronica could relate. 

"You know the rules, right?" 

Lautner dipped her head. "I'm not _ten_ , Veronica."

"What does the dealer do when they're showing sixteen?"

Lautner hesitated. "They... shit, is it sixteen or seventeen?" 

"So you _don't_ know the rules." Veronica shooed Arcade around to the other side of the table, which he took with good grace, settling in the chair next to Lautner.

"I take it you gamble quite a bit in your hole in the ground?"

"Not much else to do for fun, and it's great for teaching probabilities. We usually bet duties instead of caps. Watch and learn."

Veronica turned the deck over and began sorting out cards on the table while she talked. "Now, exact rules vary from casino to casino, but the rules are basically this: You want to be closer to 21 than the dealer. If the dealer is showing 16 or under, they _must_ hit, if they're showing 17 or over, they _must_ stay. Players at the table can do whatever they want until they bust or stay. If the dealer gets a natural 21, the casino wins right there, unless you also have a nat 21, in which case you break even. Sounding familiar so far?"

"Yes," Lautner said tiredly. "We're playing the dealer, not the other players at the table, I _know_."

"Good. Now..." Veronica drew out the word as she finished placing the last few cards in her hand on the table. "...Look at this." 

Veronica had sorted out the entire deck before them. Every card from two to nine was laid out in fours. On the other hand, she'd laid out tens, jacks, queens, and kings in the same pile, with aces on the far side.

"What do you see?" 

Arcade said, "A bad game of solitaire?" 

Lautner tilted her head to the side, her eyes flicking between the tens and the other numbers. " _Oh_."

"A _lot_ of tens." Veronica grinned. "Rule number one: Always assume you're going to get a ten. Or at least a seven or above, because half the deck is seven or above." Veronica gently made a gap in between the sixes and sevens to drive it home. "Always count on getting a high number rather than a low one, and always count on the _dealer_ getting a high number rather than a low one."

"You're getting into theory," Arcade groused. "You sure that's necessary?"

"Um, yes? Theory is how you avoid losing?" Veronica pointed at the aces. "These are always ones or elevens. Make sure you watch them when they appear. It always helps to make sure you always count them as both and keep both sums in mind when deciding what to do." 

That done, she gathered up the cards and shuffled them with a dexterity that made Lautner's eyebrows rise. "Now, everyone bets _before_ the dealer deals. Go on." 

Arcade and Lautner both set a chip forward. Veronica dealt- Arcade and Lautner both face up, and her with one up and one down. "Now as you can see, the dealer has a nine showing..."

Boone wandered in half an hour later and made a detour for the whiskey before drifting over to the table. "Playing for caps?"

"For fun," Arcade said. "Veronica and I are having fun, anyway."

Lautner scowled at him.

Boone snorted and sat on her other side. "Deal me in."

Veronica grinned and passed him a stack of chips. "Minimum bet is one chip, and, oh, that's a great idea, Boone, won't somebody get a drink for the dealer?"

Arcade nodded and pushed his chair back from the table. "Yes, ma'am. Whiskey-nuka?" 

"Sure. Two shots whiskey, measure them," Veronica called. "I'm a sloppy drunk."

Boone eyed Lautner's dwindling pile of chips as Veronica passed him a generous stack. "Always thought you'd be a good gambler."

Lautner shook her head. "Never saw the point in it. Only people making money at casinos are the ones on the other side of the counters. I can play poker, but no one plays blackjack unless it's for caps."

Arcade returned with his drink and Veronica's. "Well, you can get me back for this by teaching me poker, next."

"You don't know _poker_?" Veronica demanded. "You can play blackjack, but not poker?"

Arcade shrugged defensively, his face going a bit red. "Hey, I never said I wasn't a shut-in."

Lautner snorted. "Now _this_ , this is embarrassing. How old are you, Arcade?"

Arcade shrugged again and took a long drink. "Thirty-ish?" 

"Mm-hmm, mid-thirties, and you don't know how to play poker."

"That's pretty sad." Veronica drew everyone's cards back into the deck, shuffled, and dealt. Everyone bet a single chip. Dealer showed a four. Arcade, with a king and a jack, immediately stayed.

"Hit me," Lautner said.

Boone nodded and tapped his knuckles on the table. When Veronica quirked her eyebrows at him he said, "Hit me. I'm guessing none of you have been to an actual casino."

Arcade said, "When I go to the Wrangler, it's usually because Julie wants someone tall to drag one of our guards out."

"Hit me," Lautner said. 

Veronica peered at Lautner's cards. "Uh, Lottie, you have an eighteen there."

"No, I have a-" Lautner looked closer at her eight, ace, and nine, lips moving. "Shit, okay. Stay."

"Stay," Boone immediately echoed, keeping a nineteen.

"You don't do much math, do you?" Arcade asked.

Lautner sighed shortly. "I do enough to know when I'm being cheated. I didn't get much in the way of a formal education, _Dr_. Gannon."

"Huh." Veronica flipped her other card and kept flipping until she went bust. As she passed a chip to each of them and redealt, she said, "I can't really imagine that. What did you even _do_ when you were a kid?"

Lautner shrugged. "Ran wild with the other kids. Scavenged the ruins with the older kids. My gramma made sure Sam n' me could do our sums and read, and I really took to the reading." There was a collective nod around the table- Lautner had made her opinions about the sheer number of books Mr. House had _very_ clear. "I started doing courier work when I was fifteen and ma couldn't keep me home anymore." 

"You left home at fifteen?" Arcade asked.

"I didn't _leave_." Lautner's voice was sharp. When Arcade spread his hands apologetically she sighed. "Sorry. Sore subject. Let's change it. Veronica what did _you_ do when you were a kid?"

Veronica shrugged. "Up at five, phys-ed until seven, shower, breakfast at 0800, classes until noon, forty five minute break for lunch, classes until four, squire duty until 1900, dinner, two hours free time, lights out at 2200." She frowned. "Though the really little kids don't have squire duties. They usually either have some kind of homework or they follow around the bigger kids. Sometimes things changed up depending on if we were moving bases, or if the older squires were needed to help with something, but that's what I did, every day, from when I was seven to seventeen."

"Boot camp," Boone said, and Veronica nodded. 

"Pretty much. Much smaller army, though. Getting assigned to our real duties is a real shock after all that- being told that we can eat dinner anytime from 2000 to 2200?" She shuddered. "I still remember how hard it was to decide _when_ to do things."

Lautner leaned back in her chair. "No offense, but I wouldn't trade you. Even if I gotta count my sums on my fingers sometimes."

Veronica laughed. "Hey, it wasn't all bad. I learned how to strip a laser rifle in under a minute _and_ I can still recite the 13 commonwealths and all their states."

Arcade snorted. "Doesn't sound too far from-" He cut himself off, eyes showing white around the edges. "Uh, what we learn early on in the Followers."

"You learned how to strip a laser rifle with the Followers?" Veronica asked, eyebrows up. 

"No, I, I meant the second part? Yeah. I meant the... Are we still playing or what?" 

There was a moment of silence. Veronica and Boone exchanged a long, 'are you fucking kidding me,' glance. Or, that's what Veronica thought it was. Boone didn't see anything wrong with wearing sunglasses indoors and at night, which made eye contact kind of hard to come by. 

"Sure," Lautner said at last. "By the way, when we teach you, it's going to be strip poker."

Arcade sighed. "Yeah, okay, I probably deserve that, somehow."

"Are we just... not going to call him on that?" Veronica asked. It wasn't even that what he'd admitted to was so shocking, it was just that he was so _bad_ at lying. 

"Yes," Lautner said. "We're all going to keep our noses in our own business. I stay when you're showing less than a six, right?" 

As far as distractions went, it was one of the less subtle ones. Still, Veronica nodded. "Yes. Wait. No. Dealer busts on fives and sixes, when you get down to twos and threes they might actually get something decent, so don't just stay if your hand isn't good. Does that make sense?"

"I'll be honest," Lautner said. "Not... not really, no."

"Wish we had a chalkboard," Veronica muttered. 

"Why would you stay on a five or six...?" Boone asked.

"Because-"

"Don't," Arcade said. "Listen, Veronica's on a roll-"

"Because with the amount of ten-value cards in the deck, the dealer is going to-"

Lautner leaned back with a sigh. "I think I'm more confused than when we started."

Veronica raised her voice, talking directly to Boone. "-the dealer is going to draw a ten and get fifteen or sixteen, so then they'll draw another high card and go bust." 

Boone nodded slowly. "That... makes sense. How do you even know this?"

Veronica shrugged. "One of the older scribes, woman named Rothchild, taught me when I was a kid." She hesitated. It felt weird to not mention- "She's, um. Dead now. Sorry, that was..." Or maybe it was weirder to even bring her up in the first place. "Yeah, anyway, cards..."

"I'm sorry," Arcade said softly. 

Veronica shrugged. "Had to happen sometime. She was... She was old, she'd already passed on her duties to us younger scribes. So, when we were retreating from HELIOS... A lot of the older people covered us." 

Lautner leaned in, pity in her eyes. "Shit, Veronica..."

"Yeah. It happens." Veronica glanced at Boone, then realized her mistake and looked at the table. "So, anyway! Blackjack! Yay!" She forced a smile. 

"Yay!" Arcade repeated, his cheer so false that Lautner snorted and Veronica laughed. 

"Yay," Lautner repeated dryly. "I'm getting another drink. Boone?"

"Mm?" Boone glanced up from his study of the wall. Lautner pointed at his empty glass and he nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

Veronica ran her tongue over her teeth- she didn't know how hardcore of a soldier Boone was, but given that she'd never seen him take off his beret? It was probably stupid to bring up HELIOS. Not that he'd ever said anything about traveling with a scribe, or even a Follower, for that matter, but...

"So," Arcade said, and Veronica started out of her reverie. 

"Blackjack, right. Where even were we in this round, before we started talking about dead people?"

"No idea," Arcade admitted. "I'm gonna hit, though."

"Alright."

The game went on for a while more. Rather than get a third round of drinks, Lautner decided to go to bed, which ended the game. She stood and left quickly, leaving the other three with the clean up.

Arcade sighed. "I'll clean the glasses."

Veronica nodded and shuffled the cards one last time. "Where'd you even find the chips?" she asked.

Arcade shrugged. "Downstairs. The securitrons didn't seem to care. I wonder if that means we can take the money in all the registers- it's not like it's worth much, but some people'll take it."

Veronica snorted. "Try it, see if they shoot you."

"I'll have _Lautner_ try it." He turned off the sink and reached for a towel. Veronica had the chips stacked and was debating whether or not to just leave them on the table when Arcade continued, "What do you guys think, anyway? No one goes into the 38 for centuries, but we get on to the Strip and Lautner gets called right in..."

Boone didn't say a word. Veronica eyed him for a second before she admitted, "I think it's pretty spooky. I mean... what part of this _isn't_? Lautner got shot in the head and walks away, tomorrow we're going to go... what, blackmail the leader of one of the three families? All for a platinum chip that does who-knows-what? This is beyond weird."

"So it isn't just me," Arcade said. He sounded relieved. "Boone? What about you?"

Boone shrugged. "Yeah, it's weird." 

"Ah. You're a fountain of insight, as usual."

"Look, I don't care. I signed on to-" Boone stalled, and then just repeated, "It doesn't matter much to me." He pushed back his chair. "Good night."

"Night," Veronica said automatically.

Arcade waited until they heard the click of one of the doors before he said, "So, what's _his_ deal? Is he a mercenary?"

"I... don't think so? He joined up with Lautner not long before I did, I think he owes her a favor or something."

"Huh." Arcade put their glasses on the shelves above the sink, instead of the book case where the rest of them were arranged. "Not sure if I'm a fan of him, honestly. I mean, someone who wears sunglasses indoors?"

"And at night!" Veronica added.

"Right? And he drinks whiskey neat?" Arcade snorted. "There's someone who thinks he's hardcore."

Veronica wasn't sure if she agreed with him on that count. "Yeah. Hey, this was fun. If tomorrow doesn't kill us, we should all do this again. Teach you poker."

"Yeah. And, well, we have House on our side, right? As little as I like the guy, that has to count for _something_ when dealing with the families. We'll be fine." 

Veronica could _feel_ how fake her smile looked. "Yeah. See you in the morning."

"Good night."

**Author's Note:**

> Organization like the BoS? Everyone's gotta be related somehow. (And they have to record bloodlines really well. How much you wanna bet that cheating is punished really severely?) So the Rothchild mentioned is probably a distant cousin to the west coast Rothchilds.
> 
> Arcade's opinion of Boone doesn't match up with my own, FYI. They just met like a week ago. Give 'em time. 
> 
> As far as I know, all the blackjack tips and strategies Veronica puts forward are pretty much accurate. (They certainly work if you have 10 luck lmao.)
> 
> Also this defies my own timeline- Lautner was supposed to have picked up Cass _before_ getting to the Strip- but I couldn't work out a way to get her in on the action. Whoops.


End file.
